By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Friday, May 15, 2015, 3:30 p.m. — On the way back from Washington, D.C., Friday, Mayor John Royalty expressed frustration over the lack of a counterproposal after his latest draft of a contract presented to the Bardstown-Nelson County Volunteer Fire Department was rejected earlier this week.
The taxpayer-funded Bardstown Fire Department handles fire protection inside the city limits; the non-profit Bardstown-Nelson County Volunteer Fire Department — known as “the corporation” — handles fire protection outside the corporate city limits in areas that are not covered by the Boston Fire, Northeast Nelson Fire and Rolling Fork Fire departments. The fire departments operate as a single department at city fire station at North Fifth Street and West Broadway.
Royalty said he has been working on the fire departments’ issues since the November election, and that he has talked frequently with firefighters about the problems inherent in two departments that are administered separately but function as one.
Royalty said since November he’s given the corporation three different proposals for ways to move forward since November. Leadership changes in the corporation left him unsure at times of who he should negotiate with, he said.
“Since they were put on notice a year ago, they’ve not done anything,” he said. There has been no real discussion with the corporation or a counterproposal from its leadership. “I haven’t heard anything from them,” he said. “It’s disappointing.”
The existing contract between the City of Bardstown and the corporation expires June 30. If there are no further negotiations, the corporation and its equipment could be put on notice that once the contract expires it will need to move out of the city’s fire station .
- Read the mayor’s May 1st proposal to the Bardstown-Nelson County Volunteer Fire Department Inc.
- Read the mayor’s comments about the proposed 10-year contract.
Royalty said he’s also facing a deadline: He is required to present the final version of the city’s 2015-16 budget to the city council soon, and the city’s finance department needs time to finalize the fire department’s budget — with or without the agreed-to funding provided by the corporation.
At the heart of the issue is just that — funding. The city wants the corporation to pay an equitable share of the costs of providing fire protection. The fire department’s budget this year was $1.1 million, while the dues-funded corporation collected $500,000 in dues but contributed only $120,000 toward fire protection.
The corporation’s fire dues have appeared on the county property tax bills with the approval of Nelson Fiscal Court since at least 2003. Royalty said Fiscal Court has not been willing to allow the corporation to raise its dues since 2003 — despite the fact expenses have risen, leaving the city has had to absorb the extra costs.
After the corporation decided not to fund a merger study, Royalty’s latest proposal would have the corporation acting as a pass-through for funding fire operations. The corporation would no longer conduct fire operations, but would contract with the city fire department for fire protection services outside the city limits.
The proposal would also require the corporation to raise its dues from $50 to $60 the first year and gradually to $70 over the next 10 years.
But for now, it appears that the departments are headed for separation “unless there’s a counterproposal at home on my desk I don’t know about,” Royalty said Friday afternoon on the road home from Washington, D.C.
No matter what happens after June 30, Royalty said he remains committed to providing the best fire protection he can for the city’s taxpayers.
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